The 2023 edition of Bengaluru Technology Summit (BTS), Karnataka’s annual exposition, saw a footfall of around 1 lakh people (comprising common visitors, business visitors, delegates, speakers, and exhibitors). Besides this, the trade show also had a whopping virtual audience on various official social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.
BTS saw a reach of 3.13 crore people, 5.9 crore impressions, 2,43,455 unique clicks and 5,88,475 engagements, making it a hybrid event of global importance, said IT and BT Minister Priyank Kharge. The three-day state event concluded here on Friday.
The Minister said around 2,500 business-to-business meetings took place at the expo, of which 1,981 were virtual. “This is the highest ever B2B engagement we are reporting since the inception of this event,’‘ he noted.
According to Mr. Kharge, the event, which kicked off with the tag #Green BTS, successfully ended with zero waste to landfill while making significant strides across environmental parameters like carbon, waste, water, food & resources.
“Our sustainability partner played a pivotal role in helping us set a precedent for large-scale events to turn green and minimize environmental footprint,’‘ he said.
As a result, all the 6400 kg of waste generated at the event could be segregated for recycling and for generating 90 kg of biogas from food waste. It also succeeded in bringing the plastic consumption down by 95%. The per capita carbon footprint was recorded at 0.65 kg and the water footprint at 3.4 litres per person. “We aim to achieve “Net Zero” in the coming years,” said the Minister.
Smart Bio Awards were conferred to companies and organisations in different categories such as Innovator of the Year (ImmunitasBio), Start-up of the Year (Cambrian Bioworks), Woman Entrepreneur of the Year (AAARNA Therapeutics), Start-up of the Year-Beyond Bengaluru (COSMOS BIO), Start of the Year - Campus (Papersens) and Best Social Enterprise (Foundation for Neglected Disease Research).
Mr. Kharge announced a rural innovation fund of ₹10 crore to fund social entrepreneurship on the same model as Elevate. “Any problems plaguing the Panchayat Raj can be addressed here, be it clean drinking water, solid waste management, laying roads or any citizen services,’‘ he explained.
Bengaluru truly houses over half of the capability centres of global corporations, and this edition of BTS saw their prominence as they came in large numbers to participate and discuss things at a special round table session. SAP, Philips, Allstate, Wells Fargo, Mashreq, Target, ANZ, Cargill, UD Trucks India, Beckman Coulter, Sciex India, Sasken, Twilio, J P Morgan, VMWare, Trellix, Celonis, Nokia, Sciex India, LSEG, Baxter Innovations, Lam Research etc participated and discussed the challenges they are facing.
According to the Minister, the Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS) and the Department of Agriculture announced a partnership with the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) and formally launched Phase II of two of the CCAMP - KTech flagship innovation programs- Agri Grand Challenge II with problem statements relevant in plant pest and disease mitigation, post-harvest loss, cash crops processing and dairy farming domains.
Another new initiative this year’s BTS witnessed was the formation of the US-India Business Council and (USIBC) the Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS) to bolster collaboration between companies in Karnataka and the U.S. The partnership is expected to enhance communication channels between USIBC member companies and the government through industry facilitation and corporate interaction sessions. ``Some 600 U.S companies are expected to benefit under this exercise as they will get access to a fast track mechanism under enhanced communication channels between GoK and USIBC,’‘ Mr. Kharge added.
